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Game 5? Let’s Play Two

People don’t normally look back on Division Series matchups with much ardor and zeal. Clevelanders, as far as we know, don’t gather at bars to reminisce on that magical 2007 ALDS; books aren’t written on St. Louis’ sweep of Arizona in 2002. The best-of-five matchups are forgettable at best, even if they supply some of the postseason’s finest drama. Take, for instance, this year’s first round of playoff games. Only one series—Texas beating the Rays—didn’t reach a decisive Game 5. And Detroit’s 3-2 win over the Yankees on Thursday could end up being simply an appetizer for Friday’s stellar double dip of Game 5s featuring four of the liveliest arms in baseball. “You can’t ask for anything scripted better than that,” Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa told MLB.com’s Corey Brock, with Phillies manager Charlie Manuel adding: “That’s what playoff baseball should be.”

Associated Press

Phillies fans hope Roy “Doc” Halladay has a prescription that cures them of their NLDS ailments.

The two managers were referring to Friday night’s matchup between Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter, former teammates with the Blue Jays. Since 2003, they have three Cy Young Awards between the two of them. They also have a combined 11 All-Star appearances. They’re even listed at the same height and weight. But Friday’s game will mark the first time the pitchers have gone against each other, at least in an official setting. “They’ve faced each other before,” the Toronto Sun’s Bob Elliott writes. “Maybe in a Blue Jays intrasquad game at the Bobby Mattick facility in Dunedin without the scoreboard plugged in.” Carpenter, Toronto’s first-round pick in 1993, and Halladay, the club’s first pick in 1995, have remained friends since they came up together in the system and played as teammates from 1998 to 2002. “The best buddies already have made offseason plans for a fishing trip,” the AP’s Rob Maaddi writes. “One of them will get a head start on his vacation.”

In Friday’s earlier Game 5, young fireballers Ian Kennedy and Yovani Gallardo will face off in the deciding game of a series that saw Milwaukee jump out to a 2-0 series lead, only to have Arizona win the next two games to knot it up. In 2011, Kennedy and Gallardo combined for 38 wins and 405 strikeouts. Kennedy, who lost Game 1, hasn’t dropped two straight games all season, but Gallardo is 3-0 with 45 strikeouts in his last four starts, including that Game 1 victory. In 15 career postseason innings pitched, Gallardo has given up just one run. And just in case he runs into trouble, the Brewers have said that Zack Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner, will be available out of the bullpen.

For Milwaukee residents who also happen to be Jewish, the game has caused an even greater amount of anxiety. Yom Kippur begins Friday at sundown, which is estimated at 6:24 p.m. (Central). But with the game beginning just two hours and 17 minutes before, many Jewish baseball fans are going to have to set DVRs to find out if their team will advance to the Championship Series. “It is definitely going to cause a problem for Jews,” Rabbi Shari Shamah told WTMJ’s Erik BIlstad. “But I’m going to tell you it is not a problem. They need to be in synagogue.”

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One group of Jewish baseball fans having no conflict with the holy day? Yankees fans. In fact, they won’t have any conflict with next week’s Sukkot, either, as New York’s season ended Thursday with a 3-2 loss to the Tigers. “Ten days ago, the AL East was on everybody’s mind,” Baseball Reference blogger Andy writes. “The Yankees were the top team in the AL and the Red Sox and Rays were battling for the final playoff spot. Now? All three teams are home for the winter.” Detroit succeeded where many other teams failed this year: holding some of the best Yankees hitters in check over the series. “While [New York's] weakness was going to be pitching, they held the Tigers to a .228 batting average over five games,” Yahoo’s Tim Brown writes, “then watched Alex Rodriguez bat .111, Mark Teixeira drive in a single run, and Derek Jeter strike out eight times.” The Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi says that there are plenty directions in which to point fingers after this loss, including Joe Girardi’s six pitching changes (after starter Ivan Nova left the game in the second inning) and squandered opportunities with men on base. “There are plenty of culprits, to be sure,” Politi writes. “But sometimes, there are no easy answers. Sometimes, when a 162-game season comes down to one night in October, the ball off the bat of the star shortstop dies on the warning track.”

Much of Detroit’s success can be attributed to general manager Dave Dombrowski, who signed Joaquin Benoit in the offseason, then picked up outfielder Delmon Young and pitcher Doug Fister in mid-summer deals that barely registered on the radars of many baseball fans. Young hit three home runs in the ALDS after hitting eight in 40 games after the trade. Fister, who picked up the win in Game 5, went 7-0 with a 0.65 ERA and 0.61 WHIP over his last eight regular-season games. “Few noticed and fewer cared when Fister and Young changed teams at midseason, and the Benoit signing was mocked for its length and expense,” Sports Illustrated’s Tom Keith writes. “Yet those players may have made the difference in this do-or-die game and proved that the 95-win Tigers are every bit as deep and talented, if not as star-laden, as the $200 million opponent they vanquished.”

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Two quick Fix hits that you can read over the weekend: SLAM’s Kyle Stack has a stellar piece on the estimated $1 million art collection on display at the Amway Center, home of the Orlando Magic, and Benjamin Hill of Ben’s Biz Blog takes a closer look at the time White Sox prospect Daniel Wagner was attacked by a bat—the winged mammal, not the wooden stick—on the field during a minor-league game.

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On a personal note, today marks my last Daily Fix here at the Wall Street Journal (or anywhere else, I suppose). We rarely pull the curtains back and show the inner workings of this magical roundup of all that is good. But this column wouldn’t be possible without the editorial efforts of Adam Thompson, who, on a daily basis, had to correct some random error that I inadvertently made at 6:27 a.m. (Jim/Robert Irsay has been an especially enjoyable recurring Fix fix), or gently figure out a way to tell me that the CuervoGames may not qualify as an actual sport. And David Roth, as superb a writer as he is, happens to be an even better collaborator. Every Sunday, we’d sort out who would be writing the Fix on which day the upcoming week. Like snowflakes, no two were ever the same. It’s a unique brand of insanity that I will miss.

So fare thee well, readers and 30% of commenters! You will always have a special place in my heart (I had to get one last link in there).

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

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